Tangent, Cotangent

Lyrics:

There was a professor in New York did dwell, His name was Lounis, we knew him quite well; He wrote a big treatise on angles and lines, With chapters on spheres, surveyings, and signs.

Chorus-- Sing tangent, cotangent, cosecant, cosine, Sing tangent, cotangent, cosecant, cosine, Sing tangent, cotangent, cosecant, cosine, Sing tangent, cotangent, cosecant, cosine,

Old Manus, from cones cut by planes that passed thro', Made all kinds of figures that ever he knew; Some round, like an apple; some shaped like an egg, Some rounded like sand hills; some pointed like pegs.

Chorus-- Sing origin, focus, directrix, and curve.

In Fredericton once a poor student did dwell, The first in his class, we all liked him well; He drank some cold conics, supposing 'twas wine, And screeched as he died, "I'm choked by a sine."

Chorus-- Sing tangent, co-tangent, cosecant, cosine.

Beware, then, of sines, now, my classmates, I pray, And follow not tangents, but a straightforward way; And then, by plain sailing, your port shall be make, In a harbor of rest by no mortal surveyed.

Chorus-- Sing tangent, co-tangent, cosecant, cosine.

Source(s):

• Carmina Universitatis Novi Brunsvici. Fredericton, NB: Literary and Debating Society of the University of New Brunswick, 1881.

© UNB Archives & Special Collections, 2012